Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other volcanos: in a series of letters, addressed to the Royal Society / from the Honourable Sir W. Hamilton ... ; to which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.

  • Hamilton, William, Sir, 1730-1803.
Date:
1773
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other volcanos: in a series of letters, addressed to the Royal Society / from the Honourable Sir W. Hamilton ... ; to which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    time of Titus, dedroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii. The eruption of 1766 continued in fome degree till the 10th of December, about nine months in all [/]; yet in that fpace of time the mountain did not cad up a third of the quantity of lava, which it dif- gorged in only feven days, the term of this lad eruption. On the 15th of De¬ cember, lad year, within the ancient crater of Mount Vefuvius, and about twenty [/] From what I have feen and read of eruptions of Vefuvius and Etna, I am convinced that Volcano’s lie dormant for feveral years, nay even for centuries, as probably was the cafe of Vefuvius before its erup¬ tion in the reign of Titus, and certainly was fo before that of the year 1637. When I arrived at Naples in 1764, Vefuvius was quiet, very feldom fmoak was vifible on its top; in the year 1766, it feemed to take fire, and has never fince been three months without either throwing up red hot hones, or difgorging dreams, of lava, nor has its crater been ever free from fmoak. At Naples, when a lava appears, and not till then, it is ityled an eruption; whereas I look upon the five no¬ minal eruptions I have been witnefs to, from March 1766 to May 1771, as, in effebt, but one continued eruption. o feet